Use of Writing Fellows to Support an Engineering Capstone Course

A Writing Fellows (WF) program has been implemented at the University of Nevada, Reno. The goal of the WF program is to develop targeted writing feedback and instruction for discipline-related communication that leverages existing university resources. Each WF is trained by the University Writing Center (UWC) and serves as a dedicated peer-reviewer who is able to provide constructive feedback on both the disciplinary content and communication aspects of each assignment. This paper reports the impacts of the initial WF implementation in the Mechanical Engineering capstone design course, which has been assessed using a variety of techniques. The assessment generally indicates positive results. In particular, students favor the continuation of the program and find it more helpful than group consultations within the UWC alone. This is due in part to having a WF from the same discipline engaging with students while developing professional writing skills. Self-assessment by the students indicates higher confidence in their communication skills. Preliminary analysis suggests that the writing fellow improved the scores of graded assignments by approximately one-third of a letter grade overall. Assessment efforts also highlight the need for deeper interaction between the WF and engineering faculty.